Power Down Option

Does the S3 Have a Power down Button on Remote? Will theS3 Record My shows while iit's Powered Down "Not Unplugged' ?

I Manage to add a POWER Button to my Logitec Harmony One Remote. It does power the S3 On and Off but not sure if it is recording the Shows /I haven't shut off the S3 because of the Season Pass I have Scheduled on it with OTA Channels.

If I am not Mistaken I remember my Sony SAT-T60 having a power down button on the remote for both, TV and SAT

If a TiVo is plugged in, it is on, but if it's in standby (and there are circumstances where you can plug it in and it goes into standby after it boots), then you'll only see a blank screen, but if it's scheduled to record something, and it's plugged in, then it will record it, and I think if you bring it out of standby it'll have the 30 minute cache per tuner available as well for whatever channel the tuner(s) was(were) left on.

If a TiVo is plugged in, it is on, but if it's in standby (and there are circumstances where you can plug it in and it goes into standby after it boots), then you'll only see a blank screen, but if it's scheduled to record something, and it's plugged in, then it will record it, and I think if you bring it out of standby it'll have the 30 minute cache per tuner available as well for whatever channel the tuner(s) was(were) left on.

Standby is basically just video output disabled.

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Awesome Got it. But what is strange is that my Remote doesnt have the Off Power Option or Stand By :/

Awesome Got it. But what is strange is that my Remote doesnt have the Off Power Option or Stand By :/

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In order to be turned on by a remote control, a device, any device, has to be drawing at least as much power as needed to have active the circuitry that notices that you've sent it a signal from the remote control and does something in response to that signal.

The TiVo brand "peanut" remote controls have power buttons, but those are for turning on and off other devices, like the TV or the A/V receiver, that you use in conjunction with the TiVo.

Not really. There are some older Tivo model remotes that do have the stand by button, but I guess TiVo decided that not many people were using the function and reassigned the button to something else.

When you programed your harmony and told it to power down the Tivo, all it is doing is sending the stand by remote code command.

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Yes that is what the Logitec Harmony Remote does, It puts it in Standby Mode, And the fan shirts down, but today I checked and while it was Supposed to be off which is really standby mode, it recorded My Programs. I am glad it goes on standby mode with the Logitec Remote, and this shuts the fan off that is making a noise, Looks like I am going to have to replace that fan with a more powerful and quite fan

Yes that is what the Logitec Harmony Remote does, It puts it in Standby Mode, And the fan shirts down, but today I checked and while it was Supposed to be off which is really standby mode, it recorded My Programs. I am glad it goes on standby mode with the Logitec Remote, and this shuts the fan off that is making a noise, Looks like I am going to have to replace that fan with a more powerful and quite fan

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Standby turns off the video outputs and the front lights, it does not turn off the fan, the hard drive and everything else is still running and generating heat that needs to be dissipated, so the fan needs to run.

Yes that is what the Logitec Harmony Remote does, It puts it in Standby Mode, And the fan shirts down, but today I checked and while it was Supposed to be off which is really standby mode, it recorded My Programs. I am glad it goes on standby mode with the Logitec Remote, and this shuts the fan off that is making a noise, Looks like I am going to have to replace that fan with a more powerful and quite fan

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Probably what happened is being in standby meant it generated a little less heat and the fan could run at a lower speed and made enough less noise that you thought it wasn't running at all.

Probably what happened is being in standby meant it generated a little less heat and the fan could run at a lower speed and made enough less noise that you thought it wasn't running at all.

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Thanks i Kinda and Sort of Figured that out, kinda like a PC ? Hard Drive only Kicks up when its time to Record a Show or Take some kind of Action. I did speak to a Tivo Rep Yesterday and S3 Does have a Standby Option in its Menu a few Menus Below System Info. But the Tivo S3 Remote Doesn't have the Standby Option or Power Off Button like my old Sony SAT Had. And he was Surprised to hear that i was able to add a Power off/Standby Mode Button onto my Logitech Harmony One Remote. So i am pretty happy with the option of adding a Power Off/Standby Button on my Logitech Remote. It its working i'm Happy )

Standby turns off the video outputs and the front lights, it does not turn off the fan, the hard drive and everything else is still running and generating heat that needs to be dissipated, so the fan needs to run.

I've owned TiVos for over a decade, and I still don't understand the need for standby on a device that is always running. The hard drive doesn't ever idle, because it is always recording buffers. The only thing standby causes is the need to press an extra button all the time. When I want to watch TV, I just turn on the TV.

I've owned TiVos for over a decade, and I still don't understand the need for standby on a device that is always running. The hard drive doesn't ever idle, because it is always recording buffers. The only thing standby causes is the need to press an extra button all the time. When I want to watch TV, I just turn on the TV.

Am I missing something?

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Yes, the MANY threads debating why people use it, or why TiVos even have it (whether or not that is what the thread topic is), the tiny (but measurable) amount of power it saves, the fact that it stops EAS messages from getting recorded into your programs, and about a dozen other reasons SOME people like it, and actually use it.

It all depends on the TiVo's owner, the TiVo's location (in the house), and many other factors, if it is something you may ever have a use for.

There's people that will go as far as to actually buy special power strips that shut down their whole entertainment center (except any DVR, which they have always-on outlets for), just to save energy, save the planet (not on my list), or hope to save any little bit they can on the electric bill.

From a post of mine in such a thread titled "Standby Mode Schedule?":

I, too, am a frequent, at least 1x/day(or night) "Standby Mode" user.

I ALWAYS get heckled/hassled when bringing up this TiVo feature, which has been available for generations of TiVos.

If it had no purpose, no use, no benefits, or no users, WHY WOULD TIVO KEEP IT AROUND?

Here a few reasons, some of which have already been brought up:

1: It DOES save a minute amount of electricity, by shutting down, or lowering power, to components/circuits not necessary if you aren't viewing, leaving only what is required for the base DVR functions fully-operational.

2: It shuts off all the front LEDs on the front of the unit, for those of use who like (or need) pitch-dark when sleeping (and have a TiVo in the bedroom), without having to turn them all off, all of the time, in the settings menu. I like them on, when USING it. I hate it when people tell me to shut them off at all times, as opposed to using standby.

3: It stops EAS from changing the actively tuned channels.

4: It stops EAS from recording the banner into your programs. This situation only happens if your EAS system is one of two types, when you are a digital subscriber. If you are an analog subscriber, I *think* it always gets recorded, as opposed to overlaid, and not recorded (but this won't happen, at all, in Standby).

5: Besides the power saving, it reduces the heat generated, and can result in savings on your air conditioning costs. It also can lower the RPM speed of the cooling fan, due to the lower operating temps, giving you a quieter bedroom, also good for those who want/need a dark & quiet room to sleep in.

I'm sure there is more. I take it a step further, by telling my Guided Setup that I have both Cable & Antenna, even though I have no antenna. I then program in a manual, repeating, 1 minute, recording, for each tuner, to record an antenna channel (this is often called "Tuner Parking", by those who use it), which frees up processing power, minimizes hard drive activity, results in further power savings, less heat, and less hard drive wear/tear/seeking noises. I make sure the resulting Season Pass entries are at the very bottom of my list, and I decided on 4AM for them to start. I also park the tuners, when I see no reason to have my units buffering Live TV, like when I am watching recordings. Parked tuners also speed up other things that rely on the limited processing power of the CPU. DVRs must always give the highest priority to the base DVR functions, as well as giving the highest priority to buffering, or recording, the A/V data to the hard drive. One place you can see the difference, greatly, is when you re-organize your Season Pass list. It's no small difference in the length of time it takes to update a long list of SPs. When "parked", using a non-existent antenna channel, the recording won't show up in your Now Playing List, because it aborts, detecting that there is no signal. No signal equals nothing for the hot-running tuner/decoding/encoding components to process

I, too, would like to see the Standby feature become more easily activated, and customizable.

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Then I added (in same thread) :

One thing I posted in another thread, which I left out of my standby mode benefit list was: It speeds up network transfers (apparently it frees up enough processor cycles to give the networking performance a boost). Combined with "tuner parking", it can make a bigger difference.

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While the gov't has been strong-arming consumer electronics manufacturers to reduce the energy any device consumes while "turned off", the reality is that if you want a remote to be able to turn it back on, without having to go back to the days of remotes with wires attached to the device, all remote-controlled devices are in a "standby" state. Some (more like a few), have a power button that puts them into standby, but holding it down for ten seconds will turn it off, leaving ONLY the remote sensing circuit active.

Another way of looking at things is the computer industry. Intel enhanced speed-step, and turbo-boost, are ways that try to reduce energy consumption, by only ramping up the speed and power consumption of the CPU to what is needed at the time, as opposed to it running full-throttle at all times. Comparing this directly to TiVo would upset some people, so here's my semi-comparison: While standby doesn't reduce the speed of the TiVo processor, it shuts off all light, audio, and video outputs (except the network LEDs on the back). It shuts down anything it can, without affecting the base/core DVR functions. Every part, circuit, processing chip, or portion of processing chip, that gets shut down is less energy consumed, less heat generated, and even frees up enough processing cycles to increase how fast the network can transfer a program from the standby unit to one you are transferring to. Why? TiVo has a bad habit of producing products in which the processing power is underwhelming, and if it were any less, they probably wouldn't even work properly at it's base/core DVR levels. The Premiere line should have used the next gen chip for the job, but it's my understanding that they couldn't get enough of the faster ones, fast enough, to meet their launch date. Now we get stuck with a product that doesn't even meet the minimum requirements, set by Adobe, for the user interface. Maybe the next gen TiVo will change this. I wouldn't hold my breath, though... They didn't learn from the S3/HD, so only time will tell...

When TiVos first came out, some owners had problems with the TiVo video output always being on. People who used auto-switching video switches to connect their multiple various devices to a TV input, found that the always-on video of the TiVo caused the video switch to "hang" on the TiVo input to the exclusion of the other inputs. These switches were intended to automatically connect whichever video input was active to the TV. This enabled the owner to not have to select the input to use; they simply powered on the single device they wanted to use at the moment and it was automatically connected to the TV. When changing to another device, they just turned off the first device, then turned the second one on. Adding a TiVo to this setup screwed everything up.

When TiVos first came out, some owners had problems with the TiVo video output always being on. People who used auto-switching video switches to connect their multiple various devices to a TV input, found that the always-on video of the TiVo caused the video switch to "hang" on the TiVo input to the exclusion of the other inputs. These switches were intended to automatically connect whichever video input was active to the TV. This enabled the owner to not have to select the input to use; they simply powered on the single device they wanted to use at the moment and it was automatically connected to the TV. When changing to another device, they just turned off the first device, then turned the second one on. Adding a TiVo to this setup screwed everything up.

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That's a good point! I'll make sure to add it to my list, the next time somebody says the whole function should just be removed, claims it doesn't do anything, or otherwise states it has no purpose.

Most (newer) switches come with a remote to force the switch to the desired input. But, remotes get lost, there are usually more involved than people would like to be, and then auto-switching still retains it's value, for both those with old and new switches.

Maybe you should set up a poll and see what the numbers say, before you go speaking for the TCF roster, as a whole. No harm in that, right?

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Considering the number of people that come here to ask clueless questions that they could easily resolve themselves if they only bothered to try, I would guess that the vast majority of people using a Tivo have no idea that standby mode even exists. Of course this is speculation, but it's based on what I've seen here at tcf and other forums over the years.

FWIW, your idea of a poll is as wrong as you think dianebrat's statement is. The generally tech savvy people of tcf are not indicative of the general public, but let's try it anyway.